1. What do we mean by novelty?
Novelty in the context of the Ārohia Innovation Trailblazer Grant means something that is completely new or a significant enhancement or scaling up of what currently exists:
- in the world, or
- within a particular sector/industry globally, or
- in Aotearoa New Zealand, or
- within a particular sector/industry in Aotearoa New Zealand
2. What’s the difference between “completely new” and “a significant enhancement or scaling up?”
Completely new
An innovation that’s completely new is a product, service, process or business model (or combination of these) that’s never been launched in a market before.
It’s possible that potential competitors will be working on a similar solution, but if their solution has not yet been commercialised (offered for sale in a market) then your innovation can be considered “completely new.”
Significant enhancement
An innovation is a significant enhancement if it builds upon or improves an existing product, process, service or business model (or combination of these) to the point where it offers something well above and beyond what’s currently available. This can include creating a unique combination of known elements that were previously only offered separately to provide greater value than was previously possible.
Significant scaling up
An innovation is a significant scaling up if it takes something that already exists and applies it on a much larger scale, with the potential to achieve a level of impact not seen to date.
3. What are the different “levels” of novelty?
Novel in the world
An innovation that’s adopted for the first time ever in the world.
Novel within a particular sector/industry globally
An innovation that’s adopted for the first time by a specific sector or industry in the world, but has already been adopted by at least one other sector/industry in the world.
Novel in Aotearoa New Zealand
An innovation that’s adopted for the first time in Aotearoa New Zealand, but has already been adopted in another country.
This may require some adaptation to suit our local conditions and customer needs.
Novel within a particular sector/industry in Aotearoa New Zealand
An innovation that’s adopted for the first time by a specific sector/industry in Aotearoa New Zealand, but has already been adopted by at least one other sector/industry in Aotearoa New Zealand.
4. An innovation may be novel in multiple ways
When describing the novelty of your innovation, you should highlight all the ways in which it is novel, allowing for the fact that different aspects of your innovation may exhibit different degrees of novelty.
5. Novelty is not just about scientific or technological novelty
Novelty can stem from many factors, and is not limited to new scientific or technological R&D development.
6. Novelty can arise in any sector
The Ārohia Innovation Trailblazer Grant is open to businesses from all sectors. This recognises that novelty that can deliver benefits to the wider innovation ecosystem is not limited to any particular sector.
7.What’s an ineligible degree of novelty?
An ineligible degree of novelty in the context of the Ārohia Innovation Trailblazer Grant could include an innovation that is:
- new to a region/district/city within Aotearoa New Zealand but exists in another region/district/city in Aotearoa New Zealand
- new to the applicant's business but is already in use by another business in the same industry/sector, and does not represent a significant enhancement in design
- an incremental improvement, e.g. a minor quality, efficiency or performance improvement or upgrade to an existing product/service; or a simple modification to a core product formulation
- a brand repositioning of an existing product/service/process in an existing international market
- a localisation - i.e an adaptation of an existing offering from one international market, for entry into a new international market
- reverse engineering or copying a competitor product, service or process that already exists.
Updated: 22 May 2023